SImon perish

Overview

Simon Perish's power of Panacea grants him healing powers and unnaturally long life. His real name will not be known and it is speculated that he forgot his true name years ago.

He is the main character of the Perish storyline where he recounts his earlier life to the Empress of Gules and the young Prince. They visit him when the sickly Prince needs to be healed from illness and the boy wishes to hear more of his tale. The Prince finds something interesting in Simon’s tale of loss which initially concerns the Empress. She finds it curious that her son does not look up to the Shimmering Soldier but soon finds that she herself is not only drawn to the story but to Simon himself.

The name Simon Perish is a moniker given to him that he adopts for a large portion of his life. He only recalls being referred to as “Arka Mitra” (meaning friend of the sun) by the Surya Guru and “Brother” by his family. The Prince and the Empress give Simon his namesake. Simon comes from the Prince, referencing a tragic figure (Sir Simon of the Green) in a story that he enjoyed. Perish came from the Empress as an ironic allusion to Simon’s apparent immortality.

Backstory

Simon Perish came from a poor family in the East. He lived with his mother and two siblings as his father was a farmer who had died from an unknown source. His sister was Wen and their younger brother was Han. When Simon was young, before his powers had manifested, his younger brother was swept away by a river and drowned. Though he pulled him from the water, Simon was unable to save his little brother. This event would shape who Simon Perish would become and he never fully gets over it.

Several years later, his sister Wen became ill and Simon came to her side. She had an unknown illness but would cough up blood. He wished to help her and during a particularly bad cough spell of hers, something overtook Simon. He shook her in frustration and desperation at the thought of losing her. She went limp under his grasp and he thought her lost until he began to cough blood, the same symptoms that his sister had developed. Simon felt great pain in his lungs and throat, he began to lose consciousness but saw his sister awaken and come to his aide. After coming to, he learned that his sister was cured of her illness completely.

Word spread of his unnatural power and rather than embracing it, he was driven out of his home by his own mother and villagers. His sister wished to go with him but he convinces her to stay as he is only happy that she will live. They have a heartfelt goodbye and Simon leaves the village.

Mandala of Two Realms

Looking to find out more about what he had done and what it meant, he began to travel the land searching for answers. His search leads him to an ancient and secluded monastery. The monastery is located on the mountain know as Mount Kailas. Mount Kailas is particularly difficult to reach as it is in a nearly empty valley in the East past a treacherous mountain range. Simon discovers the order of monks known as the Mandala of Two Realms. The Mandala teach him of the Afterlife, the Ouroboros Gate and of his powers. He finds that his powers are closely tied to the Aeons that originated in the heavens.

He learns that he has the power to cure illness and heal wounds and he also learns of the existence of others like him that exhibit other powers. After years of study, he finds that he is aging much slower than others. After outliving several of the Surya Gurus, the highest monk, he opts to leave to find his place in the world and heads West. He comes upon his old hometown and finds that his mother had died and he had outlived his sister as well as her children and grandchildren. He is stricken by grief and becomes a vagrant.

He is eventually taken in by a church where he begins to perform healings on the sick. A young Acolyte, comes to admire Simon. The two become friends and begin to exchange religious knowledge and teachings over the course of several years. It is here that he chooses the name of Simon Perish. Simon teaches the Acolyte much about the Mandala of Two Realms as well as eastern techniques used by the monks to ward off Dark Spirits. This lays the foundation for the Order of Terra that the Acolyte will continue to develop and teach in the West. A young priest named Basildes is one of the first members that trains in the Order.

The Empress of Gules

The Empress of Gules hears of a healer in a church several days from her acquired seat in Meridian. She had been searching for a way to heal a strange sickness in her son and seeks out Simon. The Empress, Anahita, expresses to Simon that her son is ill and she wishes for Simon to heal him. After he heals her son she wishes to repay him but he refuses any payment. Simon is taken by her beauty and Anahita also finds herself drawn to him. She begins to confide in him during another visit to heal her son, who mysteriously keep getting sick. Eventually she invites him to her court permanently and is introduced to another man that possesses a power like him. The Shimmering Soldier is the General and head of the Sanguine Empire’s military, the Phoenix Sceptre. His power is the ability to create a blast of white energy that tears anything apart. It is a force of Destruction. The Shimmering Soldier is used as a weapon of fear in the Empire and he had helped Anahita gain her current standing. His true name is Victor Noble. A grim and serious man, Victor is nonetheless, an honorable and a brave soldier.

Anahita has used Victor as well as a young woman calling herself the Soothsayer, to display the might of the Sanguine Empire. The Soothsayer is a mysterious young girl that is capable of interpreting a vision of a person's future.

Fascinated by the discovery of other power users, Simon leaves the church and becomes Anahita's personal Cleric and Chief Advisor. After several years, Anahita's son continually becomes ill, and despite several attempts by Perish, the sickly boy succumbs to his illness. Even though Perish blames himself, Anahita is grateful for allowing the boy more years than the other Clerics believed were in him. Despite the loss of her child, Anahita becomes closer to Simon because of his loyalty to her family and love he had for the boy and takes comfort in his presence. Anahita and the Empire continues to expand West toward the Nation of Veiland. Sanguine Empire had already assimilated two other nations in Anahita's conquest. The Nation of Meridian is located in the East though near the center of the map.

The Shimmering Knight

Around this time, Victor Noble, the Shimmering Knight had gone on an escort mission and visited a priest named Basildes. No one knew of his true identity but he had begun to feel a burden on his shoulders for his deeds as the Soldier. It is here that he had met a woman by the name of Rene. Victor had hid his true identity from Rene but she knew that he had much pain in him. They both had strong feelings for one another and he began to visit her often. He had begun to court her and eventually they were married by the priest Basildes. She gave Victor her Sun Medallion that she received from a friend many years earlier. Rene gives birth to their son John soon after.

Resonating Artifacts

Simon begins study of his power of regeneration and dubs it the power of Panacea, which can heal any wound on himself or others by absorbing the damage from them and then healing it. He also begins studying and researching the power of others, beginning with Victor Noble and the Soothsayer. He christens their powers the power of Destruct and Clairvoyance respectively. By mixing his blood with various elements, he finds that it produces strange properties when synthesized with various materials. Gold and silver in particular yield mysterious results on the materials.

He finds a way to bind Victor's and the Soothsayer's power to a physical item with this process. These items emits a gentle glow and he begins referring to these items as Artifacts. It allows another to use the power but only once as the Artifact will shatter. He ends up making 5 Rings with the Destruct power though he continues to perfect this process by attempting to make the items last longer. Simon uses the Soothsayer's bracelet as the prototype.

This new process makes the Artifact emit a very low humming nose and very slight vibration. He refers to this as a Resonating Artifact. When the Soothsayer touches this Resonating Artifact it actually enhances her power to even greater levels allowing her to see her own future as well the future's of both Simon and Victor, who are in the room with her. Her nose begins to bleed and Simon is unsure of its safety. He destroys the bracelet, fearing what it could do. The Soothsayer then states to Simon that Anahita is already pregnant with his child. He already knows and asks her not to say anything to anyone. She abides and can't bring herself to tell him what she saw in her vision.

Selene

The Empress of Gules comes to the city of Selene to negotiate the terms to occupy Veiland as part of the expanding Empire. King Bythos receives her at his castle in Selene. Her High Council consists of Simon Perish as The Magus, Victor Noble as the Shimmering Soldier and the Soothsayer. There are several others in her council that serve as lords and dukes of her various political affairs. Anahita hides her pregnancy though she is fairly far along at this point. Her, Simon Perish and the Soothsayer are the only others that know.

Anahita gives Bythos time to make arrangements for Veiland's assimilation into the Empire and returns to her encampment at the Ruined Keep, away from Veiland. She goes into labor during the night and the midwives deliver her and Simon's daughter. Anahita, however, continues to bleed and loses consciousness while the midwives take the baby and do what they can to stop the bleeding. Simon, attempts to revive her but his power of Panacea cannot absorb her wounds. She dies after the birth. Distraught and angry, he kills one of the midwives and he sends the Soothsayer to take the baby from the encampment.

The baby was given into the care of the Soothsayer, while Simon deals with the fallout of the Empress's death. The Empire was in disarray after Anahita's death and taking Veiland was paramount to the occupation of the west. Victor convinces Simon to create another Resonating Artifact. He believes that it would enhance his powers to easily overtake Veiland. At the time, Simon had deemed the Artifacts too dangerous to use but both of the men had become desperate. Simon was also too distraught to truly apprehend his decision. He creates the Resonating Artifact out of Victor's Sun Medallion. The disruptive and unstable nature of the Artifact would prove too powerful for Victor to control and it created an explosion that destroyed most of the battlefield with major lives lost and intense casualties on both sides. This area became known as the Grey Plains because of the ash that had spread over the fields in the aftermath.

Because of this devastating blow to the Empire and it's inevitable downfall, Simon prepared to flee, intending to take the baby with him east to the monastery on Mount Kailas. Before he could get far, he was captured by forces of Selene while the Soothsayer and the baby had made it safely away. He was brought back to Selene where the King intended to use his power to help the ailing Queen Selene. She had become ill recently and it was speculated that she hadn't long to live. Simon, still distraught over his own loss, refused to heal her. The queen died soon after and Simon Perish was sentenced to death. He was unable to be killed by the noose so was led to the gallows but was rescued by the Soothsayer. They intended to make their way east but were once again cut off by soldiers of the King. The baby was hidden in the brush. In the ensuing struggle, the Soothsayer was killed and Perish was shot with several arrows, falling into a river where he had floated downstream.

The baby was discoverd and taken as the daughter of King Bythos and named Aletheia. The King knew her to be the daughter of Simon Perish but could only speculate about her mother. After the tragedy of The Grey Plains, the people of Veiland embraced the news of a Princess being born before the Queen's death. The people believed Aletheia to be the heir to Selene and she grew to be loved and admired by the citizens of Veiland. There were very few that knew of Aletheia's true heritage and few questioned it. Though she rather tellingly had elvish ears inherited from her father, to falsify this fact, the King had a statue of the Queen raised, one with an opulent crown. The crown was often mistaken for ears, similar to Aletheia's ears, and after several years people began to remember the queen that way. Because of the princess, they began to believe that her mother must have also been of elven descent. The rumor of Aletheia being of different heritage began to fade.

The Saoshyant

Simon ends up floating for many miles and comes under the aid of the Parsi, a religious group residing in a nation in the Southern Deserts known as the Naga Madi deserts. The Parsi had been run out of their home of Estahker by another group of people, the Magi, decades prior. His immortality is something that the Parsi have known existed and he is considered a prophet called the Saoshyant and one who can help them reclaim their homeland. It took Simon nearly two years to fully recover his memory of what happened but once he had, he rejected the notion of being a prophet. He only wished to find out what happened to his daughter. After nearly 3 years, he left the Parsi and went towards the West.

It took him years of searching but Simon finally heard that their was a young princess in Veiland. He deduces that the King took his daughter for his own and intends to travel to Selene to reclaim her. Once in the city he dresses as a beggar so a not bring any attention to himself. He sees the Princess and knows in his heart who she is. He finds that her name is Aletheia. When Aletheia was young, she had been on a visit of the city with the King. Simon had been living on the street looking for a way to see his daughter and tell her the truth. The King's escort passed by him and the girl offered Simon a small flower. He recognized her kindness and that she was happy in her life as the Princess of Selene. This was the life that she now knew, one without him. He thanked her but said nothing of who he was. Since he no longer had a place in her life, he decided to let her live out hers in peace and left Selene and the west for good.

Simon, embittered by his situation vows to bring Anahita back to Life. He recalls a tale he once heard when with the monks of a Gate that leads to the Afterlife. The Parsi know where the Gate resides as they call it the Chinvat Bridge and is a major reason for wanting to reclaim their home from the Magi. Opening the Gate will release the Ahura Mazda that will be the saviors of the Parsi people. Before leaving the west, Simon goes to the nation of Meridian. Meridian is now broken into two kingdoms because of the Empress's death. It is here that he retrieves the five rings containing Victor's Destruct power. He returns to the South and begins to set a plan in motion to use this as the opportunity to open the Gate and find Anahita to bring her back to Life.

The Djinn

13 years pass and John is now twenty and Aletheia is now eighteen. John intends to start a pilgrimage north that will lead to him joining his mentor in the east. This happens to coincide with a festival being held in Selene, Veiland's capital.

During this same time, Simon leads the Parsi toward the city of Estahker. For the last 13 years, he had learned about the Gate underneath Estahker and prepared himself and the Parsi to attempt to open it. He had read that the Gate is guarded by a terrible creature who will protect the Gate and ward off intruders. The reality is that the Aeon that guards the Gate is Sophia and serves as a beacon to guide Souls to Eternity. She is known by several names but is known in the South as Dina. She has existed since the Beginning (First Light) and is apparently immortal. Simon is prepared to use an entire peoples' belief to help him open the Gate as well as use his own knowledge of powers to Destroy whatever is guarding it. Such is his resolve to open the Gate to Eternity and be reunited with Anahita.

Simon and the Parsi kidnap the Sultan of Visperad, as he is one of few that know how to access the Gate from under the city. The young prince of Visperad is also taken. Simon had adopted the guise of the Djinn and wears a dark blue robe and hood that covers his face. He uses one ring here to enter Visperad during the abduction and consequent escape. After reaching Estahker, Simon uses another ring at the gates of the city. They then lay siege to Estahker in the attempt to run out all Magi from the city. Though most flee, many Magi people are killed as Simon is forced to use another ring to break the ranks of the Magi soldier who oppose him and the Parsi.

Word gets to Bythos of Veiland that the Sultan and his nation have been under attack and had requested they send their Champion for aid as their countries had been an allies. Veiland's High Champion, the Lunar Guard, had just been killed in an attempt on Aletheia's life weeks earlier but the man who rescued her, John Noble, volunteers to go on his behalf. Accompanying him are a small group of soldiers as well as an Alchemist in the Kings employ, Samuel Ward. Sam becomes quick friends with John and sees traveling South as an opportunity for research.

Simon and the Parsi occupy the city of Estahker. Simon takes the Sultan to show him the entrance to where the Chinvat Bridge is located. The Sultan tries to buy time but ultimately leads Simon to the entrance after his young son is threatened. The son is not the real Prince but his younger brother, Ardashir. The real Prince Ardavan is who contacted Veiland for aid as he had escaped when Simon attacked Visperad. He had been hiding in the mountains for weeks after the Sultan was abducted.

The entrance to the Chinvat Bridge located in a temple near the Palace. As Simon tries to get the Sultan to unlock the doors leading to the Bridge, someone calls to him and he turns to have a dagger fly at him, hitting him in the chest. It is John Noble who has arrived with an army to retake Estahker. Simon falls from the altar as Prince Ardavan runs to his brother and father.

John informs the Sultan that Veiland has come to help reclaim the city. The Sultan is surprised and proud of the young Prince's resourcefulness. The Sultan asks if he is the High Champion of Selene. John was checking to see who the Djinn was and before he can answer he sees that the body is gone. Simon came from below the altar and had gone around the epitaph, grabbing Ardashir and telling the Sultan to open the entrance to the cave. The Sultan tries to convince him that opening the Chinvat Bridge will release a great evil. Simon explains that he knows more about the Gate then anyone. The Parsi call it the Gate of Eternity and where he comes from it is not called either of those things. He refers to it as the Ouroboros Gate and he has no investment in the Magi or the Parsi. He will open the Ouroboros Gate for his own reasons.

The Ouroboros Gate

The Sultan opens the entrance to the cave and asks for the Djinn to release Ardashir. Simon then throws the dagger from his chest at the Sultan. John Noble tackles the Sultan out of the way as Simon disappears into the entrance with Ardashir. He follows a long series of tunnels and reaches the end where it opens into an expansive cavern underground full of white sand. There are cracks at the top of the cavern allowing the moonlight to seep in lighting the cavern brightly. In the distance he sees what looks like an altar atop a stairway with a large stone tablet and various smaller pillars at the top. Simon leaves Ardashir here and runs off toward the Altar.

He prepares for an encounter with a terrifying creature but sees nothing. He walks up the Altar and sees a young girl in a red gown sitting front of the Gate where a red sash is wrapped around two pillars on either side. The sash rests across the Gate and a large mirror rests in front of the girl. Simon then steels himself at what he is about to do and whispers an apology to her. He then uses his fourth ring and Destroys the girl. The blast is devastating enough to knock John and Sam, who just reached the top of the Altar, off of their feet.

Simon then picks up the mirror on the floor and opens the Ouroboros Gate by using the mirror to shine the light of the moon to the Gate. Black wisps of smoke come out of it. Simon is overcome with his accomplishment of opening the Gate and releasing the Demons but John attempts to close the Gate. Simon attempts to stop him and John and fight. John has a sword and is gaining the upper hand but Simon who only has the dagger from earlier. He prepares to use his last ring on John but John uses the mirror to repel the blast and part of the altar is destroyed. Simon is knocked unconcious and John falls near the Gate. He gets up and closes the Gate which instantly transports both men to another location and the Gate disappears to the East.

Journey

Simon dreams of Anahita and sees her with red hair. He awakens at a Pure Shrine in the North and regains consciousness. After coming to, he now remembers that he opened the Ouroboros Gate to release Anahita. He smiles and looks to the horizon as he realizes in his heart that his love has returned and his plan had worked. He only needs to locate her and he begins his journey to find her.

His journey takes him to the East where he hears word of eerie happenings and more sightings of Demons appearing. The Eastern people refer to them as Rakshasa. Though he has not found her, he knows in his heart that she has come back. After nearly a year and a half of searching, he hears word of a woman with red hair that is located in a convent near the South. His journey takes him back to the southern deserts.

At the convent, he finally sees her for the first time in nearly 20 years. is overjoyed that he has found her and he embraces her warmly. She is comforted by the feeling but admits that she does not know who he is. He is visibly hurt by this but says that his name is Simon Perish and that he used to be her loyal servant. He tells her that her name is Anahita and that she was the ruler of many nations. He has restored her Life to help her reclaim her throne. She accepts this immediately and now recalls that they were once lovers but she opts to keep this from him.